These cooks add taste to culinary collaborations

Is the culinary creative process an individual one or a collaboration? Is the concept, development and serving of a one-of-a-kind dish like a painting or a sculpture? Is it the result of one creative mind? Or is it like architecture or a musical-stage play, the result of teamwork, of words from one composer and music from another?
It may be all of the above, at least in Rhode Island culinary circles these days. Two brigades, two collaborative groups, are each working towards their single goal.
One group is from a couple of dining destinations in our state, the other is concentrated in the Newport area. Four local chefs and one local mixologist represented Providence at the Star Chefs International Chefs Congress held in Brooklyn, N.Y., Oct. 26-28.
The delegation was made up of Melissa Denmark of Gracie’s and Ellie’s Bakery; James Mark of North; Jake Rojas of Tallulah’s Taqueria; Derek Wagner of Nick’s on Broadway and mixologist Jay Carr of The Eddy.
Carr demonstrated and provided samples of his “Orange Julius Caesar,” while the four chefs provided samples of the following dishes: Melissa Denmark did dessert first, with a juniper Pavlova, hojicha (Japanese green tea) chocolate pudding, autumn olives, toasted almonds, and honey; Mark brought Salt Pond oysters with preserved tomato vinegar. Rojas turned out Aquidneck Island bluefish tacos, while Wagner presided over Point Judith fluke, sweet potato, cranberry and cider. Additionally, Mark will be alongside such New York culinary luminaries as Marcus Samuelsson for a panel discussion on “The New Chef and a Call to Community.”
“One of the major reasons we were just voted America’s Favorite City in Travel + Leisure’s recent poll, is because of the strength of our culinary offerings,” said Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, which coordinated the trip. “We are proud to have such excellent representation of our city and are thankful to our delegation for giving up their time to come with us to New York.” Meanwhile, in Newport, Child & Family was scheduled to hold its signature benefit event, Taste of Newport, on Nov. 16. This event predates the restaurant boom by some 15 years. For this year’s Taste, the location returned to its roots at the Hotel Viking. This has been made possible through a collaborative effort by Newport Restaurant Group and the Viking itself. In addition to returning to the location of the inaugural Taste of Newport 30 years ago, guests will also be able to choose from two mouth-watering and diverse experiences.
Taste of Newport was the grand-finale event of this year’s Newport Restaurant Week. Said Keith Tavares, vice president for institutional advancement at Child & Family, “We were very fortunate to have the generous support from both Newport Restaurant Group and the Hotel Viking as we worked through the venue change and looked to create a new Taste of Newport. Both organizations and the many other businesses putting forth their time and effort are truly representative of what community support means.”
The signature of the Taste event has traditionally been the Taste Experience. For three hours starting at 5 p.m., guests enjoyed an extended cocktail party with both savory and sweet tasting stations. With chefs from restaurants, caterers, bakeries and confectionaries across Newport County at each, the experience combines old-school tasting stations with the contemporary feel of an open-kitchen restaurant. Since the menu will include appetizers, entrées and desserts, longtime attendees know how to pace themselves and plan their route through the ballroom to make the most of their time and enjoy an orderly dinner. To appeal to the foodie crowd, this year the Taste debuted The Dine Experience. For the balance of the evening from just before 8 p.m. on, the Bellevue Ballroom offered a culinary experience celebrating the spirit of collaboration in the local community. This experience takes the entire event to the next level, where guests enjoyed an elegant, seated dining adventure with eight area chefs collaborating to produce an original four-course meal paired with wine selections from around the world.
Guests learned about the creative process and relationship between food and wine from the chef teams and sommeliers throughout the dinner.
Participating restaurants and chefs included executive chef Jim Colleran of 22 Bowen’s Wine Bar & Grille; executive sous chef Lou Rossi of Castle Hill Inn; executive chef Ted Gidley of the Clarke Cooke House; executive chef Matthew MacCartney of Jamestown Fish; pastry chef Matthew Petersen of Newport Restaurant Group; executive chef Kevin Thiele of One Bellevue at Hotel Viking; executive chef Dave Sturgeon of Stoneacre Pantry and executive chef Richard Silvia of The White Horse Tavern.
Chef Thiele told me on the radio that one of the considerations for the location of Taste of Newport was a restaurant with a kitchen large enough for all these chefs to work in. While jokes about the chefs’ egos requiring extended space come trippingly to tongue, the move was necessitated by renovation work at the event’s previous venue, the Newport Marriott, which is closing during its makeover. •


Bruce Newbury’s “Dining Out” talk radio show is heard on WHJJ-AM 920, WADK-AM 1540, online and through mobile applications. He can be reached by email at bruce@brucenewbury.com.

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